Jordan Institute for Families

Programs and Projects

FAMILIES AND CHILDREN

With a mission to strengthen families, it is no surprise that the focus of most Jordan Institute projects is on families and children. These projects are wide in scope and diverse in approach. Projects focus on such issues as child welfare, juvenile delinquency, youth violence, welfare reform, school success, and substance abuse. These projects have been and continue to be instrumental in shaping policy and practice in North Carolina, throughout the nation, and abroad.

Project	Analyses of NSCAW To Inform Pathways Home
Principal Investigator	Richard Barth
Period	09/01/05 - 11/30/05
Source	Oregon Social Learning Center
	This proposal is to complete analyses for the Oregon Social Learning Center (OSLC), using Waves 1-4 of the National Survey on Child and Adolescent Maltreatment, regarding the characteristics of children and families who re-enter foster care. Under this agreement, UNC would work collaboratively with OSLC to develop three analyses of this phenomena, that would not be useful to the OSLCA's Pathways Home project.

Project	Assessing Performance in Work First
Principal Investigator	Dean Duncan
Period	07/01/05 - 06/30/06
Source	Division of Social Services, NC DHHS
	The purpose of this contract is to provide analytical support to the North Carolina Division of Social Services on the experiences of families and individuals that have received assistance through the Work First program. The analytical support will aid NC-DSS in pursuing its mission of assisting and providing opportunities for individuals and families in need of basic support and services to become self-sufficient and self-reliant. Indicators of outcomes for families receiving Work First will foster the pursuit of these efforts.

Project	Assistance in Assessing Child Welfare Outcomes
Principal Investigator	Dean Duncan
Period	07/01/05 - 06/30/06
Source	NC DSS
	The main objective is to provide assistance to NCDSS in assessing child welfare outcomes. That research effort will involve three separate tasks: the maintenance and development of a database composed of longitudinal files; the development of a web site to provide and expand the information currently available through the experiences report; and the provision of analytic support to the Division. The completion of these tasks will assist the Division in the administration of child welfare programs in the state. This project also will provide information that counties can use to assess and monitor their performance.

Project	Career Start Proposal
Principal Investigator	Dennis Orthner
Period	07/01/06 - 06/30/07
Source	Z.Smith Reynolds Foundation
	UNC-CH Schools of Education and Social Work, partnering with the Forsyth County Schools and NW Workforce Commission, will develop text and distribute new career-illustrative curriculum units for NC middle schools.

Project	CareerStart: A School and Career Engagement Strategy for Lifting Children from Poverty
Principal Investigator	Dennis Orthner
Period	08/01/04 - 07/31/06
Source	Department of Justice
	This project is based on extensive research with children from low-income families that indicates that these children are at high risk for school failure, early dropout, and delinquency. This pattern of school failiure accelerates in the middle school years and often is associated with students disengaging from the new learning opportunities they are provided. To counter this pattern and improve school attachment among middle school children at low income levels, we produce to introduce a CareerStart model with new curriculum modules that will provide career-related content in all 6th grade classes. We will test effects of this expanded curriculum on indicators of student school performance, behavior related problems, emerging career and self awareness, and school attachment. For teachers we will assess career awareness, and curriculum satisfaction. A mix of qualitative and quantative measures will be used.

Project	Child & Adolescent Interdisciplinary Research Network
Principal Investigator	Richard Barth
Period	12/01/02 - 11/30/05
Source	Child and Adolescent Research Center, San Deigo California
	This application proposes to develop an interdisciplinary research network by linking investigators from two existing intervention and services research collaboratives, and adding investigators from the disciplines of cultural anthropology, organization culture and change child welfare and mental health economics, as well as stakeholders from the child welfare system.

Project	Child Welfare Education Collaborative at Western Carolina University
Principal Investigator	Evelyn Williams
Period	09/30/05 - 09/29/06
Source	Children's Bureau
	This project will contribute to a well-trained, competent, and stable child welfare workforce in western North Carolina by extending the North Carolina Child Welfare Education Collaborative (the Collaborative), an agency-university partnership, to the Bachelors of Social Work (BSW) Program at Western Carolina University (WCU). Focusing on the eleven counties in western North Carolina Region A, WCU will recruit and select current Department of Social Services (DSS) employees to participate in the Collaborative, becoming Child Welfare scholars. Each Child Welfare Scholar will continue to work at DSS and receive a stipend of $3000 per semester for up to four semesters while enrolled in the program. Upon graduation, Scholars will be obligated to provide one year of service at a DSS in a Region A county for each year they received support.

Project	Child Welfare Staff Recruitment and Retention: An Evidence-Based Training Model
Principal Investigator	Nancy Dickinson
Period	09/30/05 - 09/29/06
Source	Children's Bureau, Admin. On Children, Youth and Families
	The Jordan Institute for Families at the University of North Carolina School of Social Work is developing field testing, implementing, evaluating and disseminating an integrated, evidence-based resources and curriculum model to improve child welfare staff recruitment, selection and retention. The model will be field tested in 2 North Carolina sites and deliverred to public welfare supervisors and managers in 17 NC counties. Outcomes of the training will be compared with a similar gorup of 17 counties.

Project	Developing NC Guidelines: Violence Interventions
Principal Investigator	Rebecca Macy
Period	07/01/05 - 06/30/06
Source	NC Governor's Crime Commission
	This project will create a set of best practice guidelines for North Carolina community-based agencies to help provide effective interventions to intimate partner violence and sexual assault victims. The aim of this project will include 1)a description of what interventions should be provided to help victims and survivors,2)an intervention-audit plan to help agencies evaluate their capacity to provide interventions and to learn how they can enhance existing inteventions, and 3)a plan for evaluating the utility of interventions, including outcome guidelines.

Project	Development of the On-Line SSP and ESSP
Principal Investigator	Natasha Bowen
Period	09/01/05 - 01/31/06
Source	Flying Bridge Technologies, (Michael Kelly, PI) National Institute of Drug Abuse
	The project will develop online versions of the School Success Profile (SSP) and the Elementary Success Profile (ESSP); conduct a small pilot test of them; and further develop the online practice resources that go with the SSP and ESSP. These practice resources include information on effective programs, promising practices, and resources that are linked to each dimension of SSP and ESSP. These practice resources include information on effective programs, promising practices, and resources that are linked to each dimension of SSP and ESSP results profiles.

Project	E-Learning Program
Principal Investigator	Rebecca Brigham
Period	05/02/05 - 12/30/05
Source	Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect NC, School of Education's LEARN NC, School of Social Work, Orange County Dept. of Social Services
	This project supports the preparation and distribution of on-line and CD based teacher training in recognizing and reporting child abuse and neglect CA/N). Current face-to-face training appears to be absent or too infrequent to adequately equip teachers for this critical responsibility of their professional role. On-line and self-directed professional development materials for preservice and continuing education can present this content in a timely and convenient format. Pretesting of materials will be carried out in cooperation with both the Carolina Teaching Fellows Program in the School of Education and the Child Welfare Collaborative of the School of Social Work. Training modules will be based on tested training materials developed by Prevent Child Abuse NC and the School of Social Work's Family and Children's Resource Program. The format will be similar to the Professional Development for Excellence in Teaching Series developed by the UNC Center for School Leadership Development in partnership with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and the UNC--Chapel Hill School of Education's LEARN NC.

Project	Evaluating the Effectiveness of the School Success Profile (SSP) Evidence-Based Practice Strategy on School and Student-Level Performance
Principal Investigator	Gary Bowen Jack Richman Natasha Bowen
Period	07/01/02 - 06/30/06
Source	John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
	To continue the support of the SSP administrative structure and develop a grant request for evaluating the effectiveness of the SSP as a tool for informing and monitoring interventions with students at risk of school failure.

Project	Evaluating the Effectiveness of the School Success Profile (SSP) Intervention Package on School-and-Student-Level Performance
Principal Investigator	Gary Bowen Natasha Bowen
Period	12/01/03 - 11/30/06
Source	William T. Grant Foundation
	Using a longitudinal experimental design and school-level performance data from North Carolina's Dept. of Public Instruction (DPI), we will evaluate the effects of the School Success Profile Intervention Package (SSP-IP) in a random sample of North Carolina middle schools with No Recognition ratings from the DPI. In addition to evaluating the ultimate outcome of school performance, the project will examine intermediate outcomes; the extent to which schools develop behaviors consistent with "learning organization" behaviors. Contextual factors associated with intermediate and ultimate outcomes will also be examined.

Project	Evaluation of the Expanded Title IV-E Waiver Demonstration in North Carolina 2006-2007
Principal Investigator	Judith Wildfire
Period	07/01/06 - 06/30/07
Source	NCDSS
	The NC Division of Social Services received approval from the Administration for Children, Youth and Families (ACFY) to extend and expand the state's Title IV-E Waiver Demonstration. In October 2004, ACYF approved an evaluation design for the expanded demonstration that meets the conditions specified in this amended terms and conditions for the waiver. The waiver evaluation began simultaneously with the expanded demonstration in October 2004. This proposal requests the resources needed to continue implementation of waiver evaluation activities encompassing the third year of the waiver demonstration, the period of performance for this contract begins July 1, 2006 and ends July 30,, 2007.

Project	Evidenced-Based Supervision and Referral
Principal Investigator	Mark Fraser
Period	07/01/06 - 06/30/07
Source	North Carolina's Governors Crime Commission
	This project will along with NCDJJDP develop an integtrated Assessment Case Planning tool for adjudicated youth extending the current Risk Assessment instrument with a structured service planning protocol and guiding Juvenile Court Counselors from structured assessment to evidence-based treatment practices.

Project	Family and Children's Resource Program V: Training in Support of Improved Foster Care in North Carolina
Principal Investigator	Gary Nelson
Period	02/01/06 - 06/30/06
Source	NCDSS
	The primary target audiences for the contract deliverables outlined in this narrative are child welfare line staff members, supervisors and managers of county departments of social services who are serving at-risk families, foster children, and the systems foster parents who are caring for all the children in the North Carolina foster care system. Major learning and training activities include the following deliverables: Children's Services Practice Notes, four issues a year. The newsletter serves as a vehicle for updating child welfare workers, supervisors, program managers and others regarding research, practice innovations, and policy developments that affect them. Mailed out to approximately 3,000 readers, the newsletter extends the knowledge children's services staff members get during training events. Fostering Perspectives, two issues a year. The newsletter builds upon the training social workers receive by informing them about the needs and experiences of the families and children with whom they work; informs foster and adoptive parents about strategies and innovative approaches for working with the children in their care; and provides a forum in which foster children can share and learn from each other its experiences. Mailed out to approximately 11,000 readers, the newsletter extends the knowledge children's services staff members and foster parents get during training events. Training Matters, four issues a year. The newsletter provides information on training and professional development to North Carolina's child welfare workers and supervisors. Mailed out to approximately 3,000 readers, the newletter is intended to enhance the undersatanding use, and impact of child welfare training events.

Project	Family and Children's Resource Program: Child Welfare Practice and Management Training
Principal Investigator	Gary Nelson
Period	07/01/06 - 06/30/07
Source	NCDSS
	This project will provide multiple training and training support deliverables to assist with the Division of Social Sevices efforts to provide child welfare workers, supervisor, and management training that is relevant, timely, and effective, and in support of North Carolina's Multiple Response System (MRS). The MRS rollout is designed to improve results for families and children who have experienced or are at-risk of child abuse and neglect. The primary target audiences for the contract deliverables outlined in this narrative are child welfare line staff members of county departments of social services, child welfare services, and DSS directors. The deliverables are training activities for DSS child welfare line social workers, training products which include print and electronic newsletters for social workers, supervisors, managers and foster parents, the Training Information Management System (TIMS). Training activities for DSS supervisors, program managers, and directors and training activities focused on social work practice with Drug Endangered Children and their Families.

Project	Family Resource, Information, Education and Network Development Services (FRIENDS)/Chapel Hill Training-Outreach Project
Principal Investigator	Raymond Kirk
Period	12/01/04 - 09/30/05
Source	U. S. Dept. of Health and Human Services - Administration for Children, Youth and Families
	The work to be performed under this contract represents the first year of an anticipated 5-year project devoted to assisting FRIENDS to establish and operate the National Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention (NRCCBCAP), which is funded by the Children's Bureau of the Federal Department of Health and Human Services. Resources at the Jordan Institute for Families at UNC-CH will be made available to the Center to evaluate its programs and to offer technical assistance to the Center and its collaborating partners (Child Welfare League of America, Circle Parents, Prevent Child Abuse America, etc).

Project	Feasibility and Sustainability of the ESSP in School Settings: What School Staff Can Tell Us
Principal Investigator	Natasha Bowen
Period	05/01/04 - 04/30/06
Source	University Research Council
	This proposal seeks funding for two focus groups to supplement research currently being conducted with NIDA finding, and to serve as a bridge to future NIDA funding. The supplement work will serve as critical preliminary data for an intervention research proposal to be submitted to NIDA in 2005.

Project	Foster Care and Employment
Principal Investigator	Richard Barth
Period	10/01/05 - 05/31/07
Source	The Urban Institute
	The Urban Institute and its contractors at the University of California-Berkeley (UC-B), the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (UNC-CH), and the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) are pleased to submit this proposal for "Extended Employment Outcomes" for youth aging out of foster care. The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) requests this study to extend previous examining employment outcomes for these youth. Prior research looked at outcomes for youth shortly after they exited foster care and this study will analyze medium-term employment and income trajectories for these youth through at least the age of 25. Researchers will also consider the potential for utilizing other administrative data sources to examine additional outcomes for these youth, such as educational, criminal and health outcomes.

Project	Getting Ready: A Program for Reaching out to Families of African American Males in Pre-School
Principal Investigator	Oscar A. Barbarin
Period	02/01/06 - 01/31/08
Source	A. L. Mailman Family Foundation
	The goal of this project is to refine procedures and materials and to document an intervention model so that it can be used by pre-school programs to reach out to and work more intensively with families of African-American males. The intervention itself is intended to increase the effectiveness of Pre-K programs both in equipping African-American boys with the skills (e.g. literacy, language) needed for traditional academic success and addressing the special social challenges they will face as boys. The program is designed to achieve its goals by supporting parents and teachers in carrying out their teaching and socializing roles with boys using strategies such as information sharing, skill building workshops, performance feedback and problem solving.

Project	Improving the Prospects of Males of Color
Principal Investigator	Oscar A. Barbarin
Period	07/01/05 - 06/30/07
Source	W. K. Kellogg Foundation
	This project aims to increase the effectiveness of early childhood programs in promoting successful transitions of males of color and laying a foundation for their active engagement in acquiring the competencies needed for success in adult roles.

Project	NC Clearinghouse on Family & Child Well-Being
Principal Investigator	Gary Nelson
Period	07/01/06 - 06/30/07
Source	North Carolina Governor's Crime Commission
	This project will create a clearinghouse to improve community prevention and responses to family and child maltreatment by facilitating communication and collaboration among professionals from various disciplines and by providing information about interdisciplinary training opportunities.

Project	NC Intensive Family Preservation Services Program and Related Programs
Principal Investigator	Raymond Kirk
Period	07/01/05 - 06/30/05
Source	NCDSS
	The proposed work provides the State of the North Carolina, Division of Social Services, with technical assistance, consultation to web-based database developers, program data analysis and reports on same, and training and support for North Carolina's Intensive Family Preservation Services program, Reunification Services program, and related programs. Work to be performed under this contract represents a renewal of ongoing work necessary to the development and comprehensive evaluation of the statewide intensive Family Preservation Services Program and Family Reunification Services programs into the initiative. IFPS and Reunification programs new to the network of service providers (those programs joining the network since regionalization and thereafter) will be oriented and trained on the use of the NCFAS and NCFAS-R instruments. Data relevant to the state-wide program will be analyzed, and reports produced in accordance with the detailed work statement. Portions of the Annual Report to the Legislature that are derived from evaluation data and analyses will be provided. Upon request, UNC team members will consult with web-based software developers at Appalachian State University on the construction of a web-based application to provide future data gathering functions for the IFPS program and other related programs.

Project	NC Women's Prison Writing and Performance Project
Principal Investigator	Nancy Dickinson
Period	10/01/05 - 09/30/06
Source	Strowd Roses, Inc, Foundation
	The Women's Prison Repertory Company is the only inmate performance group in the United States that brings original work outside prison walls to the public. For the past three years, these productions have engaged communities in reflection and discussion, and have helped to address the stigma that women encounter as they re-enter society. The goals of the Women's Prison project are to (a) provide a creative environment in the prison setting that is conducive to self reflection and communication, and (b) address social justice and human rights issues through performance, public education, and open dialogue. Funding from the Strowd Roses Foundation will support two performances at the Carrboro Arts Center in 2006.

Project	North Carolina Child Welfare Education Collaborative
Principal Investigator	Evelyn Williams Nancy Dickinson
Period	07/01/06 - 06/30/07
Source	Division of Social Services, NC DHHS
	The North Carolina Child Welfare Education Collaborative (the Collaborative) is a joint effort of six North Carolina social work education programs, ASU, ECU, UNC-CH, UNC-Wilmington and the Joint Masters of Social Work at NC A&T and UNC-Greensboro, the NC Division of Social Services, the NC association of County Directors of Social Services and the NC Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. By increasing the number of well trained and highly committed BSWs and MSWs in local Departments of Social Services, the Collaborative helps to strengthen public child welfare services. Specialized educational opportunities emphasizing public child welfare practice are available at all participating universities. Selected social work students who will commit to work in North Carolina County DSS receive financial support through the Collaborative while they earn their degrees. The primary purpose of this proposal is to support the seventh year of program implementation at social work education programs and the Central Collaborative office at the Jordan Institute for Families, UNC-CH School of Social Work.

Project	North Carolina Court Improvement Project Of The Administrative Office of The Courts
Principal Investigator	Raymond Kirk
Period	08/27/05 - 04/30/06
Source	NC Administrative Office of the Courts
	This ongoing evaluation of the North Carolina Court Improvement Project will determine the effectiveness of recently implemented Family Court Pilots in increasing the pace of achieving permanence for children in court for reasons of dependency relating to child abuse and neglect. Family Courts were implemented to improve the quality of court hearings in child abuse and neglect cases by increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of judicial processes that impact time to permanency for children. Initial evaluation activities were conducted in the Family Court sites located in Districts 6A, 8,14, 20 and 25. The present phase of the project will conduct similar evaluation activities in comparison districts that have not implemented Family Court rules or other alternative rules intended to improve juvenile dependency case processing. The Districts to be examined under this contract include 5, 11, 16B and 29.

Project	North Carolina Family and Children's Resource Program I
Principal Investigator	Gary Nelson
Period	07/01/05 - 06/30/06
Source	Division of Social Services, NC DHHS
	Under this contract, the Resource Program will train child welfare social workers on the following topics: child sexual abuse, working with substance- abusing families, the emotional aspects of TPR, visitation, working with adults and children suffering from mental illness, child neglect, child development, and the effects of separation and loss on attachment. It will also continue to develop and maintain North Carolina's child welfare training information management system.

Project	North Carolina Family and Children's Resource Program II
Principal Investigator	Gary Nelson
Period	07/01/05 - 06/30/06
Source	Division of Social Services, NC DHHS
	The Resource Program exists to support those seeking to improve the lives of families and children. In pursuit of this goal, it works closely with human services agencies to help them develop their employees, engage their communities, measure and communicate their outcomes, and improve interagency collaboration. Under this contract, the Resources program will develop and train a new curriculum for child welfare supervisors, produce ten educational child welfare newsletters/publications, and continue to develop and maintain North Carolina's child welfare training information management system.

Project	North Carolina Family and Children's Resource Program III
Principal Investigator	Gary Nelson
Period	07/01/05 - 06/30/06
Source	NC DSS
	This project will provide a variety of training deliverables to child welfare social workers and county departments of social services (DSS's) in support of the Division of Social Services as it implements the Multiple Response System (MRS) reform effort and provides child welfare training that is accessible, affordable, and effective. Major project activities will include: providing 20 trainer days to train the child welfare training MRS is System Reform (Cornerstone I), providing 48 trainer days to deliver the child welfare training courses A New Perspective on Child Protective Services (Cornerstone IIIA) and An Introduction to Family-Centered Practice (Cornerstone IIIB), Determining the capacity of county DSS's to engage in child welfare training delivered via distance learning technologies, Converting the required child welfare training curriculum Child Development in Families at Risk into a web-based training event and offering it two times.

Project	North Carolina Family and Children's Resource Program IV
Principal Investigator	Gary Nelson
Period	04/15/05 - 06/30/05
Source	NC DSS
	This project will provide a major deliverable to child welfare social workers and county departments of social services (DSS's) in support of the Division of Social Services' efforts to provide child welfare training that is relevant, timely, and effective.

Project	NSCAW-Children's Bureau Project
Principal Investigator	Shenyang Guo
Period	10/01/03 - 09/30/05
Source	USDHHS/AFC/Admin. On Children's Youth & Families, Children's Bureau
	This project funds a faculty fellowship and three doctoral fellowships for studying innovative methods to conduct child abuse and neglect research. The UNC proposal will draw on existing national and North Carolina data and will explore the relationship between birth outcomes and child maltreatment, domestic violence and child maltreatment, and the type of maltreatment and the services received, among many topics.

Project	Predicting the Development and School-Readiness of Maltreated Children
Principal Investigator	Richard Barth
Period	10/01/05 - 09/30/06
Source	University of Chicago
	The proposed research will analyze the developmental trajectories of young children who are maltreated by using data from the National Survey of Child Well-Being and creating a prediction model that will help identify which children are at greatest risk.

Project	Rural Child Welfare Success Method
Principal Investigator	Gary Nelson
Period	09/30/05 - 09/30/06
Source	US Dept. of Health and Human Services, Children's Bureau
	This project will enhance the capacity of child welfare workers to serve families in rural communities by developing The Rural Child Welfare Success Method, a three-part intervention comprised of a multi-module, competency-based training course for rural child welfare supervisors and line workers, a series of agency and community engagement dialogues, and a series of summits for rural child welfare professionals. This combination of approaches will help social workers develop the knowledge and skills they need to identify and build on the strengths of rural families and communities to achieve child safety, permanence, and well-being.

Project	SAD National Survey of Child Abuse and Neglect (NSCAW)
Principal Investigator	Richard Barth
Period	10/01/05 - 02/28/07
Source	Children's Bureau
	Research funded under HHS-2005-ACF-OPRE-0095 will have five integrated elements. First, the study will address three overarching topical issues referenced in the announcement: infancy, unsubstantiated abuse; and child welfare outcomes as related to the federal CFSR outcomes of placement stability, recurrent abuse, reunification, and re-entry. Second, the research will develop new knowledge about the diversity of the child welfare population and factors by age, maltreatment type, race/ethnicity, and urbanicity mentioned in the funding opportunity--associated with child and family needs, service use, and outcomes. Third, we will expand the use of methods for explaining and analyzing groups of clients who have different characteristics, needs and outcomes by extensively applying person-centered classification analysis techniques and combining them with longitudinal techniques. The use of classification allows us to more thoroughly understand children who are doing well as those in continued need. This speaks to the announcements request for proposals that increase the understanding of resiliency in child welfare. Fourth, we will disseminate information about the study findings to practice and policy groups via a minimum of six peer review articles. Fifth, the project will disseminate information about the use of person-centered analysis techniques for broader use in child welfare services research. At least six papers will be published as a result of this project, along with powerpoint presentations that will be made publicly available, on the Jordan Institute for Families website and through national presentations. The result of this project is that child welfare services research will have new classifications to use in analyzing NSCAW, and other data sets, and awareness of additional ways to use classifications in longitudinal research. Further, these classifications will have implications for direct service providers seeking to more specifically tailor and test interventions within this population.

Project	Safe Home Study Evaluation
Principal Investigator	Richard Barth
Period	03/01/06 - 09/30/06
Source	Consortium with Childrten
	Although more than 50,000 children are adopted from foste care each year and many of them are adopted across county andf state lines, there is no standardized way to assess the readinesss of families to adoptt foster children. The SAFE project is a federally funded effort to advance a standardized home study process that could facilitate inrter-jurisdictional placements, and other adoptive goals. The proposed project will evaluate the success of SAFE in meeting these objectives.

Project	Safety and Well-Being of Maltreated Children Following Substance Abuse Treatment of Their Mother's: Rates, Mechanisms, and Actions
Principal Investigator	Richard Barth
Period	02/01/06 - 01/31/07
Source	Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
	This small grant is designed to continue to explore the delivery of child welfare services (CWS) and substance abuse treatment services to women who are remaining at home, under CWS and court supervision. In our recently completed work, we found higher than expected rates of re-reports among women who have substance abuse problems and get substance abuse treatment. Basically, mothers involved with substances who get treatment have a higher likelihood of having a re-abuse report by 18 months, even when we rigorously match (using propensity score matching) on a variety of risk factors and the mothers level of substance abuse. The rates are not exceptionally high, but they are significantly different-the SAT group has a 20% reabuse report rate at 18 months and the non-SAT group has less than half that rate. We want to propose a small project to follow-up and try to figure out why substance abuse treatment (SAT) may be associated with a higher likelihood of reabuse reports . We will convene an expert panel to discuss our work with us via conference call. We will also meet with juvenile court judges, CWS administrators and workers, SAT administrators and providers, and other key informants about these findings in order to better understand what mechanisms may be at play.

Project	Samarkand and Heart and Other Clinical Intervention Programs and Evaluation (RSAT and HEART)
Principal Investigator	Raymond Kirk
Period	07/01/05 - 06/30/06
Source	Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
	The work to be performed under this contract is a continuation of initial work begun in 2000, and is intended to make resources at the Jordan Institute for Families at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, School of Social Work available to the Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (DJJDP) in North Carolina and to the HEART program Director, the administration and staff at the Samarcand facility during the maintenance of the HEART program and the implementation of gender specific programming through the greater Samarkand facility. Special programs are under the development for girls who are abusing or dependent on substances, and for those who are not. The Jordan Institute for Families at the School of Social Work team of professionals with expertise in institutional care, alcohol and drug abuse treatment, training curriculum development and training delivery, information systems design and programming, and longitudinal population research and evaluation, will continue to work with representatives from DJJDP, the treatment programs and the Samarkand administration administration to implement this comprehensive treatment and research program. The focus of this contract is to provide consultation and evaluation as the program progresses.

Project	Self-Evaluation In Family To Family: 2006
Principal Investigator	Charles L. Usher
Period	01/01/06 - 12/31/06
Source	The Annie E. Casey Foundation
	This document presents a plan of work and budget under which faculty and staff of the Jordan Institute for Families of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) will begin an evaluation of Family to Family and provide technical assistance to sites participating in the inititative in 2006. Our objectives for this year are to:1) assist Foundation staff in identifying core sites and supporting them in negotiating agreements with selected sites; 2) continue working with Foundation staff and consultants in developing and implementing a plan for evaluating the initiative; 3) lead an effort to identify and report on the challenges of implementing Family to Family; and 4) participate in ongoing technical assistance to self-evaluation by sites participating in the initiative.

Project	Serve on National Evaluation Advisory Team (NEAT) for Making Connections
Principal Investigator	Charles L. Usher
Period	01/01/05 - 12/31/05
Source	The Annie E. Casey Foundation
	Professor Usher's involvement in the Making Connections initiative entails three discrete, but interrelated areas of activity encompassed by his role as a member of the National Education Advisory Team (NEAT). He will continue to provide advice and consultation to Foundation staff and consultants regarding: (1) the development and implementation of surveys by the NORC/Urban Institute research team and plans for the analysis of resulting data; (2) the development of an approach for a cross-site evaluation of the initiative; and (3) the development and refinement of self-evaluation strategies by local learning partnerships in Making Connection sites.

Project	State Policy and Support for the Families of Children with Disabilities
Principal Investigator	Susan Parish
Period	06/01/06 - 05/31/07
Source	Lois and Samuel Silberman Fund
	Children with disabilities have chronic physical, developmental, emotional or behavioral conditions which require health and related services beyond those of their typically-developing peers. Beyond traditions medical services provided to all children, disable children need specialized therapies and supportive services, such as rehabilitation, environmental adaptations, assistive devices, personal assistance, mental health, home health, and family support services including respite care. Family support services have been found to positively influence families psychosocial and financial well-being. However, there is a considerable state variability in the provision of such services. This proposed research project will analyze data from the National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs. The following research questions will be answered: Are there racial and socioeconomic disparaties in use of family support services by children with disabilities and their families? How do state-level policy choices (e.g.., Medicaid, State Children's Health Insurance Program) impact the receipt of family support services by children with disabilities and their families? Does professional care coordination affect the impact that state policies have on families receipt of support services? The project will then develop two peer-reviewed journal articles and two research briefs for dissemination to social work practitioners based on the research outcomes.

Project	Substance Abuse Needs and Services for Families Involved in the Child Welfare System
Principal Investigator	Richard Barth
Period	07/01/03 - 12/31/04
Source	Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
	The principal objectives of this project are to: 1) describe the services that are received by caregivers who abuse substances, 2) estimate the relationship between service characteristics, case status and child outcomes, 3) determine how the provision of substance abuse services affects placement, and 4) derive policy and program implications.

Project	Substance Abusing Women's Service Use and Birth Outsomes: A Risk and Protective Factors Analysis
Principal Investigator	Kathleen Rounds Rebecca Macy
Period	12/15/03 - 11/30/05
Source	National Institute of Drug Abuse
	This pilot study will examine service use and birth outcomes for substance abusing woman using a risk and protective factors framework. The aims of this pilot study are to determine: 1) if participation in a comprehensive prenatal care and substance abuse treatment program mediates the relationships between substance abuse risk and protective factors and birth outcomes; 2) how the relationships among risk and protective factors, service use, and birth outcomes may be different for low income African American women than for low income white women; and 3) how the women participating in these services may have different risk and protective profiles that explain different levels of service use and birth outcomes. This study will analyze secondary data from the Horizon's Program, a substance abuse program for pregnant and post-partum women.

Project	Technjical Assitance and Evaluation Services to FRIENDS and their Collaborative Partners on the Operation of the National Resource Center
Principal Investigator	Raymond Kirk
Period	09/30/05 - 09/20/06
Source	Chapel Hill Training - Outreach Project, Inc.
	The work to be performed under this contract represents the second-year of an anticipated 5-year project devoted to assisting FRIENDS to establish and operate the National Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention (NRCCBCAP), which is funded by the Children's Bureau of the Federral Department of Health and Human Sevices. Under this contract, the Principal Invewstigator will serve as the exrernal evaluator of FRIENDS/NRCCBCAP. Resources at the Jordan Institute for Families at UNC-CH will be made available to the Center to evaluate its programs and to offer technical assistance to the Center and its collaborative partners (e.g., Child Welfare League of America, Circle of Parents, Parent Child Abuse America, etc). Center activities to be evaluated focus on community-based efforts to prevent child abuse, and the states efforts to accommodate CBCAP legislative mandates within the state child welfare program improvement plans (PPs), required of all statess following the recently completed Child and Family Service Reviews (CFSRs). The Principal Investigator and others from the Jordan Institute will advise and consult with FRIENDS/NRCCBCAP regarding the implementation and operation of the programs. The Evaluation team will compile and analyze data to evaluate the Center providing feedback to stakeholders that would be beneficial to adjusting varioua aspects of the program to best meet the needs of the state led agencies for community-based child abuse prevention.

Project	The Competence Support Program
Principal Investigator	Mark Fraser
Period	08/25/03 - 08/24/07
Source	US Department of Education, Institute of Educational Sciences
	The Competence Support Program is a collaboration between the UNC School of Social Work and the Center for Developmental Science, a UNC research center. The program is part of The Social and Character Development National Evaluation to evaluate the success of seven school-based interventions designed to promote positive social and character development among elementary school children. The research will provide evidence, through randomized field trials, that would allow education professionals to make informed choices of school-based programs to promote social competence. The Competence Support Program involves three universal components - social skills training, behavior management training, and training in social dynamics management. These three components address the three areas that impact most significantly on the social and character development of children in elementary school, namely, the individual skills of the child, the effectiveness of the teacher's classroom management, and the stability and health of the social environment.

Project	Women's Prison Writing and Performance Project
Principal Investigator	Nancy Dickinson
Period	01/01/06 - 12/31/06
Source	Nathan Cummings Foundation
	The goals of the Women's Prison Project are to (a) enable incarcerated women to address their histories of violence and victimization through creative expression and sharing with peers, (b) provide an environment in which valuable communication and life skills can be developed, and (c) address the stigma surrounding female offenders through public education and open dialogue in order to ease their transition into mainstream society.

Project	Youth Villages Evaluation Proposal: Stage 2
Principal Investigator	Richard Barth
Period	03/01/06 - 09/30/06
Source	Youth Villages
	This is a proposal to complete work on the second stage of the evaluation plan. The first stage involved the determination of the key research questions for Youth Villages, review of existing data collection measures and procedures, and analysis of the capability of existing data collection and sampling strategies to answer questions for Youth Villages. The second stage will involve the completion of two research papers using existing data and the implementation of new evaluation procedures. In this document we describe our accomplishments to date, our expectations for the remaining two months of the current evaluation effort, and our vision for the work required for a more complete redesign of data collection and analysis at Youth Villages. In the Timeline and Products section, we summarize which parts of the original evaluation plan will be included in each stage. The completion of this project will yield several benefits for Youth Villages. First, Youth Villages will have completed a review of its data collection procedures and arrived at a plan for future data collection that optimizes the utility of the data for management and research. Second, Youth Villages will have a longitudinal datafile that will have yielded several papers and reports and exemplars of analyses that they could complete in the future. Third, Youth Villages and UNC will have developed a working partnership that can generate other research products and proposals. Fourth, Youth Villages will have a record of at least two publishable papers that will help raise its public profile and assure foundation and state and local partners that Youth Villages continues to invest in improving its work and is committed to a family-centered and evidence-based approach to youth services.

Aging | Families and Children |

Health and Mental Health | Substance Abuse